Suggested Meanings of Leonard Cohen’s Here It Is Lyrics

I take this as a spiritual paean to life.

It begins tracking the rise and fall of one man:

“Here is your crown, and your seal and your rings” — love of life from a position of triumph & wealth.
“Here is your cart, And your cardboard and piss” — love of life from a position of failure & degradation.
“Here is your wine, And your drunken fall” — love of life from the depths of drunkenness.
“Here is your sickness. Your bed and your pan;” — love of life as the body dies.

Now we confront death:

“And here is the night, The night has begun; And here is your death In the heart of your son.” — Passing into death, perhaps observed by a son who believes death is the end.
“And here is the dawn, (Until death do us part); And here is your death, In your daughter’s heart.” — Passing into death, perhaps observed by a daughter who believes in heaven.

Now we reflect on the whole of life:

“And here you are hurried, And here you are gone; And here is the love, That it’s all built upon.” — Ah, life is so fleeting, but it is build of love; (I do hear “hurried”)
“Here is your cross, Your nails and your hill; And here is the love, That lists where it will.” — What was your sacrifice that will carry you onwards? (I do hear lists, and interpret in the archaic mode of ‘enlists’ — secure one for a purpose or cause.)

Of course all those who live also die; life is a cycle of greeting and discovery, and also of parting. But the author may also be singing a prayer that we all live with love, and that we all die with love.

Ultimately, a word for word interpretation as meaning something very specific may be beside the point with this one. As with all the great songs, it is the what the whole sings in the heart that is the meaning, not some elaborate dissection.